Celtic are willing to hold talks with Rangers over the situation revolving away fans and the Glasgow Derby, according to the Scottish Sun.
The Hoops have correctly made the decision not to give Rangers any tickets for the Celtic Park meeting on January 2nd. This came after the Ibrox club decided to keep Bhoys fans locked out of Ibrox on August 29th.
Rangers reneged on plans to give Celtic 700 tickets for the first derby clash of the season. The Scottish Sun reports this was down to Celtic stating they couldn’t guarantee the same for January 2nd due to red zone requirements that were in place at the time.
Celtic had to bar away fans from entering Parkhead during the early stage of the season. The need for red zones meant that the Hoops had to move certain supporters into the away end of the stadium. This meant that no tickets could be given to opposition supporters.
Now, red zones have been removed, meaning that Celtic could’ve handed Rangers tickets for January if they wanted to. But in a brilliant move that saw the club back its supporters, they’ve decided to give them nothing.
But the Sun believes that Celtic are open to a return to normality afterward. The report states that the Parkhead club is ready to discuss a reciprocal away ticket-arrangement for future derby games.
Time for Rangers to do the right thing and meet Celtic halfway
The whole issue regarding away supporters in Glasgow derbies began back in 2018. Rangers slashed Celtic’s allocation at Ibrox from 7,000 to 900. They laughably cited an increased season-ticket demand for the season. The truth is it just came across as though they were sick of the sight of Celtic celebrating on their own turf.
Celtic would then respond by slashing Rangers’ allocation for Parkhead. The Hoops have never once led the way here. They simply responded to the slap in the fact given to us by the Ibrox club.
Even now there is still no sign of a proper return to normality. Celtic have also given out the vibe that they would be open to getting this fixture back to what it was. But for whatever reason, Rangers never seem to want to get around the table and discuss it.
They can have absolutely no complaints at being handed 0 tickets for Parkhead. They quite simply don’t deserve it given what happened back in August. Simply another way of trying to appease their supporters by the looks of things.
Hopefully something can be done about how we move forward from here. This fixture has always had something stripped away from it since the away fan reduction.
But let’s not pretend both clubs are to blame here. This is a Rangers problem. The sooner they extend an arm to Celtic, the sooner we can get this fixture back to normal.
In other news, Stephen Welsh appears set for his big Celtic opportunity after recent omissions
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